The demonstration began with a march from the center of Beit Ommar to Karmei Tsur settlement, which was built on stolen Palestinian land. As soon as the demonstrators arrived near the settlement, about 30 heavily armed Israeli soldiers came to meet them. The soldiers beat the participants with their shields, batons and rifle butts. Many of the peaceful protestors were injured. Ahmad Abu Hashem, 46 years old, was arrested after being beaten and hit in the face by the soldiers. An international activist was injured after being caught in a headlock and dragged by her throat by Israeli soldiers while she was trying to protect Ahmad. Ahmad is the secretary of the Popular Committee in Beit Ommar. Two of his sons, ages 22 and 15, have been arrested in the past month. Arresting him and his family members is part of Israeli forces targeting the Popular Committee in Beit Ommar.

Yousef Abu Maria (age 38), the spokesperson for the Beit Ommar Popular Committee, was also injured, along with two other members of the Popular Committee: Mousa Abu Maria (age 34), who was hit in the forehead with a rifle butt, and Younes Arar (age 40), who was beaten on his legs with a baton. One of Ahmad’s sons, age 14, was severely beaten and kicked by the soldiers while on the ground. The demonstration ended with teargas being shot at demonstrators as they were leaving.

In total around 50 soldiers appeared during the demonstration, preventing the 20 or so activists from reaching the fence. The soldiers pushed the non-violent activists roughly onto barbed wire and rocky ground, and soldiers kicked activists in their legs while pushing them with their shields. An Isaeli activist, Kobi, was arrested during the demonstration after arguing with a soldier. He was released late last night without restrictions after the judge ruled that he had the right to freedom of speech and protest. Meanwhile, Hossein Alamy, the 14-year-old boy who was arrested from the Beit Ommar demonstration last month, is still in jail and has not been granted access to a lawyer during his interrogations.

The 17th of April marks Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, the day when Palestinians and solidarity activists show their support to the Palestinians imprisoned by the Israeli government. Different kinds of events have taken place all over the West Bank and internationally. Five British women, arrested when they arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv as part of the “Welcome to Palestine” action, have gone on hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners and those under administrative detention. Welcome to Palestine reported yesterday:

Some 3,500 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel started a hunger strike today demanding rights to family visits and education, an end to isolation and an end to administrative detention, a procedure under which detainees are held without charge or trial. Khader Adnan, who ended his protest hunger strike in February after 67 days, is due to be released today. There are currently three Palestinian political prisoners who have been striking for more than 40 days.

According to Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, “As of 1 April 2012, there were 4,610 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 322 administrative detainees, 6 women and 203 children.” For a break-down of the ages and types of prisoners, see the Addameer Monthly Detention Report.

After a nice and quiet lunch nearby the Mosque, two international volunteers from PSP were heading back, but three of the people from the popular committee in Bil’in, among them the the popular resistance coordinator, were held aside and told they were arrested.

The internationals gathered around demanding that the Palestinians be set free. The soldiers were too few to break through the crowd, so they called for backup.

When the border police came they violently broke through the crowd and arrested the three Palestinians. Internationals and Palestinians tried to stop them and were met with hard violence. People, old and young, among them two Canadian men in their sixties from Christian Peacemaker Team and a Danish woman aged 69, were thrown to the ground.

The soldiers pushed the internationals back, and arrested four internationals and seven more Palestinians. An Italian woman severely injured her arm, but an Israeli ambulance refused to take her to hospital.

The settlers were watching the whole time, clapping when people were arrested.

Three of the Palestinians and two internationals were set free an hour or so later.

During a raid, Palestinians are frequently taken from their homes without any explanation given as to why they were being arrested. Most often they are taken in jeeps to the Gush Etzion settlement, which houses a jail and interrogation center.

The names and ages of the arrested are below, along with the date of their arrest:

Naseem Khader Alamy, 34 years old (arrested March 1, 2012)
Hasan Alamy, 22 years old (arrested March 1, 2012)
Malik Alamy, 25 years old (arrested March 1, 2012)
Yousef Ibrahem Alamy, 36 years old (arrested March 1, 2012)
Malik Mahmoud Alamy, 20 years old (arrested March 1, 2012)
Aish Khaled Awad, 16 years old (arrested March 5, 2012)
Motaz Khaled Awad, 18 years old (arrested March 5, 2012)
Basil Khaled Abu Maria, 16 years old (arrested March 5, 2012)
Zain Hisham Abu Maria, 15 years old (arrested March 7, 2012)
Samy Abu Jouda, 15 years old (arrested March 7, 2012)
Said Imad Saleeby, 16 years old (arrested March 7, 2012)
Ahmad Mahmoud Saleeby, 16 years old (arrested March 12, 2012)
Bilal Mahmoud Awad, 16 years old (arrested March 12, 2012)
Mohamad Jawdat Ady, 15 years old (arrested March 12, 2012)
Amer Alqam, 16 years old (arrested March 12, 2012)
Ismail Eisa Saleeby, 34 years old (arrested March 23, 2012)
Hussein Ramzi Khadr Alamy, 14 years old (arrested March 31, 2012)

In addition, seven people have received papers from the Israeli army, requesting that they report to the security center for interrogations. Those people are:

Hamza Sabarna, 20 years old
Basim Alamy, 45 years old
Mohamad Alamy, 20 years old
Memdouh Alamy, 24 years old
Sofian Baher, 34 years old
Nadeem Safarna, 36 years old
Ibrahim Awad, 20 years old

Israeli soldiers started throwing sound bombs at the demonstrators within the first five minutes of arriving at the fence. The soldiers were extremely aggressive and violent today, pushing demonstrators on the rocks, twisting people’s arms, hitting them, and shoving them. Soldiers arrested a 14 year old boy, Hussein Ramzi Khadr Alalamy (pictured left). Several Palestinian and international activists attempted to hold on to the boy to keep the soldiers from making the arrest, and their attempts were met with violence from the Israeli soldiers. An American woman was choked, hit and shoved to the ground, and a Japanese man was punched in the face and also shoved to the ground, where he was kicked in the head.

While leaving the demonstration, a few boys started throwing rocks, and the soldiers started shooting tear gas. One tear gas canister hit a Palestinian man in the leg, and another one hit an American woman in the back. There were at least five people injured: Amad Ahmad Abu Hashim (22 years old); Youness Arar (42); Saqr Abu Maria (42); and two internationals, ages 23 and 24. One of them, Amad Abu Hashim, was sent to the hospital due to his injuries.

Earlier that same morning at 3:30am, Israeli Forces raided the village and arrested Zain Hisham Khaleel Abu Maria, 15 years old,Said Imad Soleibi, 15 years old, and Sami Amer Abu Jouda, 16 years old. The night before in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 6th, soldiers also arrested Basel Abu Maria, 16 years old, Moataz Khalid Awad, 18 years old and Aish Khalid Awad, 16 years old. None of the six arrested youth have since been released.

These night raids are part of the daily terror that Palestinians experience living under occupation. Israeli soldiers enter Beit Ommar village almost every single night to arrest Palestinian residents. More than fifty area residents have been arrested in such night raids since the beginning of this year.

For video of the March 7th night raid, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsXcBB9mpGk

Zain was then ordered to call his 38-year-old brother Naseem Khader al-Alami. When Naseem arrived, the soldiers stopped him in the middle of the street before beating and arresting him.and they arrested him and beat him. Concerned neighbors who tried to intervene were also physically assaulted by soldiers and ordered to remain in their homes. In addition to Naseem, soldiers four other people by invading homes off the main street of Beit Ommar. Those arrested were:

Mohammad Sadi al-Alami, aged 16
Yousef al-Alami aged 22
Hasan al-Alami, aged 20
Malik al-Alami, aged 21

During the night raid, the soldiers shot more than ten sound bombs, as they shouted for the villagers to remain in their home. This kind of night invasion in a frequent occurrence in Beit Ommar, and adds to the terror that the residents experience on a regular basis at the hands of the Israeli military. Since the beginning of February, Israeli soldiers have arrested 18 people including eight youths under the age of 18. 32 Beit Ommar residents were arrested in January. In many cases those arrested are given no cause for their detention. The military court system under which they are tried will then ask the family to pay for the release of people like Mohammad Ahmed Abu Hashem who was given a bail of 1000 shekels and released after two days still not knowing why he was arrested in the first place.

To donate to help pay the support costs associated with the arrest of Beit Ommar residents, see: http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/donate/

Hana Shalabi, from the northern West Bank village Burqin, is being held without charge since her detention on Feb. 16.

Her father Yahya Shalabi said she is refusing food to protest her administrative detention, following in the footsteps of Khader Adnan who secured a deal on Tuesday that his detention order would not be renewed after 66 days on hunger strike.

Shalabi, whose brother was killed by Israeli forces in 2005, immediately announced her hunger strike after soldiers seized her from the family’s Jenin-district home.

Her father says soldiers assaulted Hana during the raid and ransacked her parent’s house.

Shalabi was freed in October 2011 when Hamas secured the release of more than 1,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier.

She had spent 25 months in administrative detention, under procedures that allow Israel to detain Palestinians for renewable terms of six months without pressing charges, using laws dating back to the British Mandate period.

Four months later, Shalabi found herself back in jail using the same detention orders. Three other detainees released under the same deal were re-arrested by Israeli forces last week.

Israel is holding 309 Palestinians in administrative detention, according to figures by prisoners rights group Addameer. There are currently six Palestinian woman in Israeli custody.

Lina Jarbouni, from Arraba Al-Batoof, a Palestinian village in the Galilee, has served almost ten years of a 17-year sentence, and Wuroud Al-Qasim, from Palestinian town Tira in Israel has been jailed for five and a half years.

Salwa Abdul-Aziz Hassan from Hebron has been imprisoned since Oct. 19, 2011, Alaa Al-Juaba from Hebron, had been held since Dec. 12, 2011, and Saja Al-Alami from Ramallah, was jailed on Jan. 9, 2012.